I'm getting the feeling Naren is feeling somewhat frustrated, as i am, that seekshidayath has persistently failed to answer Narens main question in that what does seekshidayath propose to do about helping the downtrodden muslims in India?

Naren has a fair point in when he says by constantly bringing up the past and focusing on the past does nothing to help to bring about reconciliation and understanding and mutual respect between Muslims and Hindus in the present day and without this what hope is there for the future.

Let me give you an example, if a husband and wife have a falling out, and the wife constantly brings up past errors or mistakes of the husband, i fear sooner or later the marraiage will break up. Is it not better, to leave the past behind and look forwards to the future.

Yes Seekshidayath, we have to remember the past and hopefully learn from it but to focus solely on it is going to do nothing but wind up those hindus who are sympathetic to the muslims plight and further errode the sympathy that hindus have for muslims.

Also we have to remember for every instance where a hindu has hurt or caused inhury to a muslim i'm sure we can find examples of where a muslim has hurt a hindu or in muslim majority countries where the muslims have discriminated against the minority religion or persons.

As Naren quite rightly said "There are fascists in Hindus. But not all Hindus are fascists." I'm sure you, I and every muslim would rightly say that there are terrorist muslims but not every muslim is a terrorist. And the same can be said about every race, religion and nation, each and every one has a minority which is against peaceful co-existence with their fellow man and womankind.

So lets move forwards and find aways to bring us together and find solutions to todays problems instead of bringing up the past constantly and causing friction, animosity and ill-feeling where there should be peace and harmony.

JazakAllah for your comments. I do respect the viewpoint of naren. Brother, i do not wish to potray hindus or any particular group of people as wrong. Kindly note that am not digging the past. I don't understand why am stated wrong when am trying to wipe wrong labels over the muslims in India.

It's not the past am dealing with. It's happening in India that after every blast innocent muslims are arrested and tortured. What's wrong when am sharing the news and exposing that it's not muslims who are behind blasts. I don't wish to spread animosity.Yes, i do hold lots of hatred towards the Gujrat minister, who caused mass killing of muslims. What's wrong if i raise my voice for justice---

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “All the descendants of Adam are sinners, and the best of sinners are those who repent."

You make a valid point in that muslims are immediately the first persons people point their finger of blame at in the aftermath or an explosion, but this is not just the case in India, this is happening all over the world. Everytime i hear or see a report about an explosion or a killing, my first reaction is "Oh Allah, please let it not be in your name."

Although I am from England, my parents are from Gujrat and we still have a house there and my parents split their time between England and India.

We need to find a solution to this, instead of jumping like lunatics and monkeys with our bottoms on fire every time someone points the finger of blame at muslims or someone draws a picture and says it is the Prophet (pbuh), lets just take a moment to ask ourselves what have we done personally to show the non-muslim world the true Islam, the true message of peace and respect for others? Cos the message of peace and respect is not the one being conveyed when they see images in the media of muslims hiding their faces and calling for death for all non-muslims.

I understand you are trying to raise awareness that not every bomb blast has the fingerprint of muslims on it. But maybe there is a better way of showing this? Instead of recating in the aftermath of the bomb blast what if we spread the truth of Islam before the even occurs and educate non-muslims as to what it truly means to be a muslim, that way at least when the next time a bomb does go off, or someone claims to have committed a suicide bombing in the name of Islam, the person/s you have spread the message to will hopefully say, "Hold on a second, this suicide bomber is not a real muslim, for real muslims would not commit suicide, as suicide has been forbidden by Allah."

Slowly one by one we can hopefully educate the non-Islam aware public of what a real muslim would and would not do.

Would like to clear that am right now thru this thread not expressing my hatred or fury [except to that of Gujrat's CM},towards any religion

By sharing these articles, am merely trying to counter the media and those who got programmed by the media that these innocents are terrorists. Why am i wrong when i say that it's not these terrorists but them {with proof] who blamed us.

You are from Indian origin. If you do not understand hindi, kindly seek help of your parents while watching this video.

Please forgive me if in my messages i ever gave the impression that you were expressing any hatred or fury against any religion. That was not my intention. I was merely picking up on the point which Naren made that some people might take exception to all the stories you were detailing and might see it as an attack on hindus.

You are right the world should be made aware of the truth, that there is a hidden agenda of some hindus in that they wish to cause destruction to the muslims.

My hindi is not as good as it should be, but i will give the video a watch when i get home tonight, kinda difficult trying to watch it at work :-)

This is the text of the speech delivered by Hon’ble Mr. Justice M. Katju, Chairman, Press Council of India, to the mediapersons on their responsibility at a get together at his home in New Delhi on October 10, 2011.

Friends,

I wish to thank you all for accepting my invitation for this get together and for coming here.

As you know, I have only recently become the Chairman of the Press Council of India. It is a new job for me as I was earlier in the legal world for 40 years, 20 years as a lawyer and 20 years as a Judge.

Now, that I have come into your world I need your guidance, advice and suggestions so that I may be able to perform my duties properly.

I have arranged this get together of media people because I think that the time has now come in this country when some introspection is required by the media. Many people, not only those in authority but even ordinary people, have started saying that the media has become irresponsible, wayward and needs to be reined in.

Only a couple of days back I read in the newspapers that the Union Government has issued some regulations regarding licences for news channels, about which there was a lot of reaction.

Under the Constitution of India freedom of the media is part of the freedom of speech guaranteed by Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution. However, no freedom can be absolute, and reasonable restrictions can be placed on them. One of the basic tasks of the media is to provide truthful and objective information to the people which will enable them to form rational opinions, which is a sine qua non in a democracy. But is the Indian media performing this role properly?

I may only mention certain defects in the functioning of the Indian media today:

(i)The media often twist facts. In this connection, I would like to give an example.

I sat for several months with Hon’ble Mrs. Justice Gyan Sudha Misra in a Bench of the Supreme Court. One day, a leading English newspaper of the country published on its front page a photograph of Hon’ble Justice Misra with the caption “Supreme Court Judge says that her daughters are liabilities”.

This was a totally distorted and fallacious news and that too published in the front page of a leading English newspaper.

The correct facts were that Supreme Court Judges have to disclose their assets and liabilities. Against the liabilities column Justice Misra wrote ‘two daughters to be married’. Strictly speaking it was not necessary to mention this because liabilities means legal liabilities e.g. housing loan, car loan, etc. However, the intention of Justice Misra was obviously to say that she had to spend a lot of money in her daughters’ future marriage. She has three daughters (no son) only one of whom has been married and two are yet to be married. Justice Misra never said nor intended to say that her daughters were liabilities, and the news published was totally false and defamatory with the obvious intention of creating a sensation.

This publication was of tremendous embarrassment and grief not only to Justice Misra but also to members of her family. Did the publisher of this news items ever think how much pain and embarrassment it would cause to Justice Misra and her family? Obviously not. All that the publisher of that news sought was to create a sensation by twisting the correct facts.

Even if Justice Misra had made a mistake in writing “ two daughters to be married” against the column of liabilities, should the media have cashed in on this mistake and totally distorted it without realizing how much pain it was causing to some people? I ask the media people assembled here today to themselves introspect and seek the answer.

(ii)The issue of paid news has become prominent of late. In the 2009 elections, it was a scandal. How to stop this vicious practice needs to be discussed among us. Incidentally, in compliance with the order of the Chief Information Commissioner dated 19.9.2011, we have placed the 71-page report of the Committee consisting of Shri Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Mr. Sreenivas Reddy on our website www.presscouncil.nic.in with the disclaimer that the Press Council had rejected this report in its meeting held on 26.4.2010. .

(iii)The media often portrays non issues as real issues while the real issues are sidelined. The real issues in the country are economic, that is the terrible economic conditions in which 80% of our people are living, the poverty, unemployment, lack of housing and medical care etc. Instead of addressing these real issues, the media often tries to divert the attention of the people to non-issues, such as that the wife of a film actor has become pregnant, whether that lady will give birth to a single child or to twins etc. Are these the real issues facing the nation?

In the Lakme India Fashion Week event, there were 512 accredited journalists covering the event in which models were displaying cotton garments, while the men and women who grew that cotton were killing themselves at a distance of an hour’s flight from Nagpur in the Vidharbha region. Nobody told that story except one or two journalists, locally.

Is this a responsible way for the Indian media to function? Should the media turn a Nelson’s eye to the harsh economic realities facing over 75 per cent of our people, and concentrate on some ‘Potemkin villages’ where all is glamour and show biz? Are not the Indian media behaving much like Queen Marie Antoinette, who said that if the people had no bread, they should eat cake.

No doubt, sometimes the media mentions farmers’ suicides, the rise in the price of essential commodities, and so on, but such coverage is at most 5 to 10 per cent of the total. The bulk of the coverage goes to showing the life of film stars, pop music, fashion parades, cricket and astrology.

(iv)Bomb blasts have taken place near the Delhi High Court, in Bombay, Bangalore etc. Within a few hours of such bomb blasts many T V channels started showing news item that Indian Mujahidin or Jaish-e-Mohammed or Harkatul-jihad-e-islam have sent e-mails or SMS claiming responsibility. The names of such alleged organizations will always be Muslim names. Now an e-mail can be sent by any mischievous person, but by showing this on TV channels and next day in the newspapers the tendency is to brand all Muslims in the country as terrorists and bomb throwers.

The truth is that 99% people of all communities, whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Sikh and of whatever caste or region are good. But the manner in which such news is shown on TV screens and published in the newspapers tend to create the impression that all Muslims are terrorists, and evil, which is totally false. The person who sends such e-mails or SMS obviously wants to create hatred between Hindu and Muslims, which is the old British divide and rule policy continuing even today. Should the media, wittingly or unwittingly, become part of this policy of divide and rule?

I have only referred to some of the defects in the Indian media. No doubt there are defects not only in the media but in other institutions also e.g. the judiciary, bureaucracy etc. but all of us must try to remove these defects.

There are two ways of removing these defects in the media. One is the democratic way, that is by discussions, consultations and persuasion, which is the method I prefer. The other way is by using harsh measures against the media e.g. by imposing heavy fines on the defaulters, stopping Government advertisements for them, suspending their licence etc.

In my opinion, in a democracy, we should first try the first method for rectifying the defects, namely the democratic method. It is for this purpose that I have decided to have regular get togethers with the media, including the electronic media, so that we can all introspect and ourselves find out ways and means of rectifying the defects in the media, rather than this being done by some government authority or external agency.

For this purpose, I propose to have such get togethers, like the one as we are having today, every two or three months, in which we will discuss issues relating to the media and try to think how we can improve the performance of the media so that it may win the respect and confidence of the people of the country.

Such meetings will not be formal meetings of the Press Council of India but only informal get togethers. No doubt, the electronic media is not under the Press Council of India Act, but surely there is nothing wrong in discussing matters relating to media with them also. After all, the ultimate purpose of the print media and the electronic media is the same, and journalistic ethics apply to both.

No doubt, if the media proves incorrigible, harsh measures may be required, but in my opinion that should be resorted to only as a last resort and in extreme situations. Ordinarily, we should first try to resolve the issues by discussion, consultation and self-regulation. That is the approach which should be ordinarily first tried in a democracy. I, therefore, respectfully request the Union Government to kindly defer implementation of its recent decision regarding the news channel license, so that we can ourselves discuss the issue thoroughly and ourselves take corrective measures in this connection.

Till now the function of the Press Council was only adjudication. I intend to make the Press Council an instrument of mediation in addition, which is in my opinion the democratic approach. For this purpose, I need the help and co-operation and advice of all of you.

Presently, India is passing through a transitional period in its history, the transition being from feudal agricultural society to modern industrial society. This is a very painful and agonizing period in history. If you have read the history of Europe from the 16{+t}{+h} to the 19{+t}{+h} Centuries, which was the transitional period there, you will find that this period was accompanied by tremendous turbulence, turmoil, wars, revolutions, social churning, chaos, intellectual ferment etc. It was only after going through this fire that modern society emerged in Europe. Presently, India is going through this fire. We are going through a very painful period in our history, which I think will last for another 20 years or so before modern industrial society emerges in India.

The media too must help society in going through this transitional period as quickly as possible, and by reducing the pain. This, it can do by attacking feudal ideas e.g. casteism and communalism and promoting modern scientific ideas.

Before I conclude, I once again repeat my appeal to the Indian Government through the Prime Minister to release Dr. Khalil Chisty who is in Ajmer Jail. He is 80 years old and has not very long to live. He was an eminent virologist in Karachi Medical College and was a Ph.D from Edinburgh University. He is a heart patient and has many other ailments also. He is unable to walk. In the name of humanity I appeal to the Indian Government to release him and allow him to get back to home in Karachi to his wife and daughter who live there. The Pakistan Government honoured my appeal and released Gopal Das from a Pakistani Jail. I am sad that the Indian Government has not yet honoured my appeal made several months ago to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, the Hon’ble Home Minister, and His Excellency the Governor of Rajasthan. In my opinion, the prestige of our country will be increased if Dr. Chisty is released, whereas if he dies in jail, we will be disgraced.

Deputy Secretary General Khurshid Khan in a Sikh Temple
Muhammad Khurshid Khan was so upset at the killing of a Sikh man in Pakistan by a Taliban group that he decided to embark on a pilgrimage of service to Sikh and other religious places of worship as a form of penance for their actions.
Quite a remarkable story:
Pakistan deputy attorney-general to clean shoes at Amritsar Golden Temple

After spending several hours polishing the shoes of worshippers at Gurdwara Sisganj in New Delhi on Monday, where he was part of a Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association delegation, Muhammad Khurshid Khan left for Amritsar, home of the Golden Temple and the centre of the Sikh religion, to clean thousands more.
He began his service pilgrimage after Jaspal Singh, one of three Sikh men kidnapped by Taliban militants in Peshawar in 2010, was murdered. The other two men were rescued by the Pakistani Army. Since then he has visited Sikh temples or Gurdwaras in Pakistan and India to declare his opposition to terrorism through ‘sevadari’ – service – to other religions.
Mr Khan said he was so upset by the killing and his fear that it associated his own Muslim faith with terrorism that he went to sit on the steps of Peshawar’s Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh. He felt a sense of peace, he told The Times of India, and resolved to visit other places of worship, including Hindu temples and Christian churches to offer his help.
“I am a Muslim, not a terrorist; I am a Khan, not a terrorist; I am from Pakistan, but not a terrorist,” he explained.
The Taliban had damaged Pakistan’s ‘pluralistic’ heritage – there are still Christian, Hindu, Sikh and Jain communities throughout the country – but it was unfair “to tarnish a whole community for the sins of a few,” he said.
He visited his local Gurdwara every day for two months, where he read the works of the Sikh gurus, including Guru Nanak, and polished shoes. In both India and Pakistan, shoes are regarded as dirty, and touching the feet of another is an act of self-abasement and respect.
He was on Monday night travelling from New Delhi to Amritsar after India’s Sikh prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, indicated he had no objection to him continuing his pilgrimage at the Golden Temple.
Paramjeet Singh Sarna, president of Delhi’s Sikh Gurdawara Management Committee, said Mr Khan’s actions had moved Indian Sikhs.
“There is always this underlying impression that every Pakistani is a radical but people like Khurshid have changed this image. His act has a message for the entire humanity. Although he as an individual didn’t hurt or kill anybody he has shown remorse for the innocent victims of the Taliban in Pakistan, including a Sikh, by performing community service. We are thankful to him for everything he has done for the minorities in Pakistan,” he said.

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